Tips for writing and performing your own show

Storytelling

Before you start writing, as a group think about what makes a good story.

• Do a spider diagram with ‘good story’ at the centre and think about all the different things a good story has. Then do the same for a bad story!
  
  
• Build on this idea by devising the worst story ever, collectively come up with a truly rubbish idea and act it out. This is a really useful exercise in working out what not to do when it comes to story writing!
  
  
• Next, try free-writing. This is an exercise that’s great for getting your devising brains going. You have a minute to write anything and everything that comes into your head. It could be really poetic or literally just ‘I’m looking at a wall’.
  
  
• Share with the rest of your group! This is a good way to take any fear out of writing. The hardest thing often is thinking of what to write – so don’t think, just do it!

Characters

The best way to start writing a story is to first think about your characters.

• My favourite exercise is to play a completely random piece of music (it could be classical, scary, adventurous – have a search on YouTube!), then independently start drawing the character you think of when you hear the music. Do this as many times as you like with different pieces of music!
  
  
• Pick your favourite character out of those you’ve come up with and explore them in more detail. Give yourself one minute to write down as much as you possibly can about them: their name, their age, their job, their appearance (hair colour, eye colour, height) and all the details which make up their personality. Get to know these characters and remember there’re no wrong answers, these are your characters!
  
  
• Imagine a day in the life of this character and silently act it out to your group, if it helps play the piece of music which they were based on to accompany it.

Scriptwriting

• In pairs, devise a scene with your characters. Discover more about your own character by seeing how they interact with someone else’s. 
  
  
• Now that you have a solid understanding of your character, discuss as a group ‘What is a script?’. I like to think of it as a set of instructions made up of 1. action and 2. dialogue. Once you look at it in those simple terms, it’s not scary!
  
  
• Next, discuss ‘What is a scene?’ – you’ve already devised a few so you should have a pretty good idea! I think the most important thing is that there’s a change for your characters. By the end of the scene, your characters need to be in a different place to where they started (whether that’s emotionally or physically).
  
  
• Try putting a script together of just one or two pages for the scene you devised earlier. Remember to think about the change that happens in the scene itself.

Rehearsing and performing

• You have your script (action and dialogue), so the next step is to learn your lines. If it helps, a member of your group could also act as director to give you some guidance!
  
  
• Everyone in your group now has a scene they've written and rehearsed, so you have enough material to put on a showcase!